free online sudoku puzzles

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Sudoku
Sudoku puzzles on Linux
A GAME OF LOGIC
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Some regard Sudoku as the 21st century Rubik’s Cube. We’ll show you how to get started with Sudoku in Linux.
BY OLIVER FROMMEL
S
udoko is the game this year. No matter where you are, on the subway or in the park, you’ll find people poring over little boxes with numbers. Germany’s Game Manufacturer’s Association went so far as to say that Sudoku would be next year’s megatrend. All of this hype has prompted toy manufacturers to exhibit no less than ten different Suduko clones disguised as new games. If you prefer a low-budget version, you can just let your Linux computer design the puzzles for you and then print them out, filling in the squares at your own leisure. Unlimited gaming is guaranteed, as a 9 by 9 puzzle gives you over 6 x 1021 different combinations [1]. In fact, you would need several lives to exhaust all of these possibilities. For more on Sudoku, check out the Wikipedia article [2]. Many newspaper websites give you Sudoku puzzles online, and there are two Sudoku puzzles (beginner and ex-
pert level) for you to try out at the end of this article.
Logical
Sudoku is based on a very simple idea. You have to fill all the empty squares in the 9 x 9 box so that the numbers 1 through 9 appear just once in each row, column, and 3x3 box (see Figure 1). The name Sudoku is Japanese and means something like “numbers singly.” Based on these rules and the existing numbers, the player has to restrict the choice of entries Figure 1: Gnome-Sudoku devises puzzles and gives you tips for solvfor an empty ing them.
square until just one candidate is left. There is no need to add the numbers or perform any kind of calculations. Playing Sudoku means relying on your power of deduction, and it helps if you have a good memory. Some players sim-
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Sudoku
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you use the slider cursor is typical of the added conveto select a skill nience that the KDE program gives you level, from Easy to in comparison with Gnome-Sudoku. Hard. As this has Ksudoku gives you two ways of addno visible effect, ing a number to a square. You can select you might prefer the number in the vertical toolbar on the to check for the left and then left click a square, or you list in the same dican press a numeric key on your keyalog box to find a board. If your entry is wrong, the progame with your gram will color the number red. You can preferred skill then right click the number to remove level. your entry. Gnome-Sudoko One of Ksudoku’s more practical feadoes have some tures is its ability to store notes on posaving graces, tential candidates for a field. To use this such as a practical ability, use the menu or your keyboard feature known as to choose a number, and then right click. the Tracker. The Ksudoku enters the candidate in the field Tracker lets you using a small font. Although any numrecord a number ber of entries is possible, the software of moves and then can only display four entries due to the revert to your prefont size. vious position Getting Help with a single click. Figure 2: Ksudoku shows you an empty grid at the start of the game. Of course, there is The program highlights the row, column, and current 3 by 3 box. If you click Hint, Ksudoku simply fills also an undo functhe current square. The Shift key gives tion that lets you undo individual you a more subtle form of help. Ksudoku ply note their possible solutions in a cormoves. shows you the other squares where the ner of each box to remind themselves of Gnome-Sudoku can also give hints. In same number would fit (Figure 3). Of what they were thinking of later on. fact, you can hover the mouse over a course, this is a big help in comparison There are several strategies to solving square to view the possible candidates to analog, paper-based Sudoku. So if you a puzzle. For example, it makes sense to for that square. If the cursor is outside of really want to see how good you are at think about which numbers are missing a square when you ask for a hint, the solving Sudoku puzzles, you should in a 3 by 3 box, then to check intersectprogram gives you an error message inavoid becoming dependent on the help. ing rows and columns for these numstead. There is a Resume Game option The help function is extremely terse; it bers. If the number exists in an intersectthat lets you carry on an interrupted does not give you instructions for the ing row or column, you can rule it out in game from where you left off. Gnomeprogram or for the game itself. Instead, the 3 by 3 box. In many cases, this just Sudoku also has a help feature leaves one possible solution, and that that gives newcomers an intromeans you can add the number to the duction to the principles of the square. game and explains now to use Computer Help the program. Of course, this kind of logic game is perConvenience with a K fect for computing. The simplest Sudoku games just give you a puzzle and let you The KDE counterpart to Gnomesolve the puzzle on your computer. Sudoku is Ksudoku. The KsuGnome fans will prefer Gnome-Sudoku doku program only requires the [3], a Python program. It can devise SuKDE libraries if you want to doko puzzles of varying levels of diffibuild from the source, and there culty. The player can solve the puzzle by are binary packages for Fedora entering numbers directly in a Gnome and Debian on the homepage window (Figure 1). [4]. After typing ksudoku to You need Python 2.4 to install Gnomelaunch the program, you should Sudoku. (Only the latest Linux distribusee a window like the one in tions have Python 2.4.) Gnome-Sudoku Figure 2. works quite well in principle, but it is The fact that Ksuduko highFigure 3: With the Shift key, Ksudoku shows you all still fairly buggy. Although the bugs do lights the row, the column, and the squares that could contain the same number as not typically cause crashes, they can the three by three box belonging the field with the mouse cursor (here the 6 in the slow the game. The trouble starts when to the square with the mouse center). All other squares are colored pink.
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Sudoku
Figure 4: Ksudoku has a 3D mode that follows the same rules as normal Sudoku. It just organizes the squares in a three dimensional space instead of on a two-dimensional board.
nine squares. As the numbers 1 through 9 are not enough for these games, the program uses letters instead. Besides Ksudoku and Gnome-Sudoku, there are a number of other programs centered around this popular game of logic. The Sudoku-Solver [5] puts the computer to work on solving puzzles when experts have given up. The Sudoku-Explainer [6] does not simply give you a solution; it actually analyses Sudoku puzzles and explains how to solve them. The latter program requires ASCII-formatted Sudoku input. So you have to type the puzzle in a text file, keeping to the program’s own format.
is, if you are interested in solving Sudoku puzzles on your Linux-based computer, take a look at Ksudoku. I
INFO
[1] Sudoku math: http://web.inf.tu-dresden.de/~bf3/sudoku/ [2] Wikipedia on Sudoku: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku [3] Gnome-Sudoku: http://gnome-sudoku.sourceforge.net [4] Ksudoku: http://ksudoku.sourceforge.net [5] Sudoku-Solver: http://sudokusolver.co.uk/ [6] Sudoku-Explainer: http://sourceforge. net/projects/sudoku-sensei [7] http://www.linux-magazine.com/ issue/63/Sudoku_Answer.pdf For several years Oliver was a sysop and programmer at Ars Electronica Center in Linz/Austria. After finishing his studies in Philosophy, Linguistics and Computer Science he became an editor for the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation. Today he is head of the Editorial Competence Center for Software and Programming at Linux New Media AG.
Ksudoku has a 3D mode that gives you a three-dimensional model of the otherwise flat display (Figure 4). This does not change the principle of the game, but it does give experienced Sudoku players a new and interesting perspective. For Sudoku addicts, Ksudoku also has bigger puzzles with more than nine by
Conclusions
If you insist on using a Gnome program, Gnome-Sudoku is probably the right game for you, despite its minor failings. However, Ksudoku for KDE is superior to its Gnome counterpart in most respects, starting with row and column highlighting, and it includes better hints to help you solve puzzles. My recommendation
Easy
Hard
Figure 5: Here are two Sudoku puzzles for you to solve. Fill the free cells so that each row, column, and region contains the figures 1 through 9 just once. For the answer see here [7].
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